IRANIAN Christians in the UK are praying for peace, and regime change, as a crackdown on anti-government protesters was reported to have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of their compatriots.
Amid an internet blackout and heavy restrictions on independent media, reports from Iran suggest that the government has attempted violently to suppress protesters across the country.
Iranian government officials, speaking anonymously, have put the number killed at about 3000, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. Outside observers have been unable to verify these figures, but the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights has said that at least 734 protesters have been killed, including a dozen children.
Last week, after 12 days of widespread protests, the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, told the Church Times that she was praying for a “peaceful resolution that will lead to justice and freedom” in the country of her birth (News, 9 January).
And on Saturday, the Priest-in-Charge of St Aphrahat the Persian Sage, Manchester, Canon Omid Moludy, said that for his congregation “the news is not abstract — it is immediate and painful. There is a lot of prayer, quiet grief, and also a strong sense of solidarity with those who are suffering.”
On the anti-regime protests, he said that people were “hopeful, but cautious, because they have seen too many cycles of raised expectations followed by repression or external manipulation”.
Having threatened Iran’s leaders that “they’re going to have to pay hell” for killing protesters, President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the United States was imposing a 25-per-cent tariff on any country doing business with Iran.
The next day, he wrote on social media that “Help is on its way,” and encouraged Iranians to “keep protesting”, but did not shed further light on his plans.
The UK would introduce legislation economically to sanction Iran’s “finance, energy, transport, software, and other significant industries”, the Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Last week, President Trump claimed that Ayatollah Khamenei was making plans to flee the country. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, President Trump said: “The leaders of Iran called, they want to negotiate. I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States. A meeting is being set up. But we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting.”